Stock Traders Purchase High Volume of SLB Call Options (NYSE:SLB)

SLB Limited (NYSE:SLB) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Friday. Stock investors bought 36,020 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 31% compared to the typical daily volume of 27,435 call options.

Insider Activity

In other SLB news, insider Dianne B. Ralston sold 39,727 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.08, for a total transaction of $1,433,350.16. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 202,201 shares in the company, valued at $7,295,412.08. This trade represents a 16.42% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Abdellah Merad sold 60,000 shares of SLB stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.69, for a total transaction of $2,261,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 159,371 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,006,692.99. The trade was a 27.35% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 138,174 shares of company stock valued at $5,107,677 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.22% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of SLB

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in SLB by 23.3% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 185,374,879 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $6,371,335,000 after purchasing an additional 35,057,313 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of SLB by 7.0% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 83,617,999 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $2,898,037,000 after buying an additional 5,466,786 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in SLB by 478.8% in the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 47,719,476 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $1,994,674,000 after buying an additional 39,474,501 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its stake in SLB by 30.4% in the second quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 20,233,749 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $683,901,000 after buying an additional 4,719,852 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Boston Partners grew its position in SLB by 27.7% during the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 19,829,381 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $824,160,000 after acquiring an additional 4,300,222 shares during the last quarter. 81.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

SLB has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of SLB in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Zacks Research raised SLB from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, September 15th. Barclays boosted their price objective on SLB from $46.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 21st. Citigroup increased their price objective on SLB from $46.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. Finally, Rothschild & Co Redburn began coverage on SLB in a report on Monday, November 3rd. They set a “buy” rating and a $48.00 target price for the company. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, SLB has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $51.28.

SLB Price Performance

NYSE:SLB traded up $0.93 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $36.12. 15,093,367 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 16,262,561. SLB has a 52 week low of $31.11 and a 52 week high of $44.97. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $35.02 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $34.81. The company has a quick ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40. The firm has a market cap of $53.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.94, a P/E/G ratio of 10.19 and a beta of 0.97.

SLB (NYSE:SLB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, October 17th. The oil and gas company reported $0.69 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.67 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $8.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.99 billion. SLB had a return on equity of 18.97% and a net margin of 10.34%.The company’s revenue was down 2.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.89 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that SLB will post 3.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

SLB Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 8th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.285 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 3rd. This represents a $1.14 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.2%. SLB’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 44.02%.

About SLB

Schlumberger Limited engages in the provision of technology for the energy industry worldwide. The company operates through four divisions: Digital & Integration, Reservoir Performance, Well Construction, and Production Systems. The company provides field development and hydrocarbon production, carbon management, and integration of adjacent energy systems; reservoir interpretation and data processing services for exploration data; and well construction and production improvement services and products.